DPP and SMPTE launch IMF spec

The Digital Production Partnership (DPP), the media industry’s international business network, has announced the release of a new technical specification to support the mastering and international exchange of content: SMPTE TSP 2121:2018 IMF Application DPP (ProRes). The new specification builds on the existing Interoperable Master Format (IMF) standard developed by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), which was designed for streamlining the distribution of premium feature film content.

“The global market for quality content has brought enormous opportunity for media companies, by creating demand for different versions of master material. But that also brings great cost and complexity,” says DPP Managing Director, Mark Harrison. “That’s the problem that IMF solves: it enables faster, cheaper and higher quality versioning. It brings huge financial and operational benefits.”

IMF Application DPP (ProRes) makes it possible to automate the content supply chain, eliminate the unnecessary creation of multiple versions, enable workflow efficiencies, and reduce QC and archive storage requirements, while maintaining the quality of the original asset. The result is significant cost and time savings.

The creation of SMPTE Technical Specifications (TSPs) will enable industry groups and business users, such as the DPP, to constrain standards to enable new workflows and international interoperability.

“Specifications are part of SMPTE’s new future” said Bruce Devlin, SMPTE Standards Vice President, “With IMF Application DPP (ProRes) we are starting a new chapter in SMPTE’s activities to encourage global interoperability, and to foster the emergence of new and stable technologies.”